Skinner served his country as a US Marine during the Vietnam War and served in the Peace Corps in India. He received the National Service Award for his work in India where he worked with the people there to teach them the use of salt tolerant varieties of rice and wheat. Skinner also served as a Foreign Service Officer for the US government in the Caribbean.

Described by a friend as a man "larger than life" and a "master of politics" who truly cared about people, former state representative and senator Sherrill N. "Pete" Skinner was laid to rest Nov. 7 in Lake City.

Skinner, 62, entered the hospital Oct. 4 and died Nov. 3 in the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Lake City after a short battle with cancer.

A native of Suwannee County who was raised in McAlpin on a farm, graduated from Suwannee High School, received a political science degree from University of Florida and a master's degree in history from Valdosta State University, Skinner had lived in Lake City for many years before his death. Skinner served his country as a US Marine during the Vietnam War and served in the Peace Corps in India. He received the National Service Award for his work in India where he worked with the people there to teach them the use of salt tolerant varieties of rice and wheat. Skinner also served as a Foreign Service Officer for the US government in the Caribbean.

Skinner, who soon became familiar to voters by the khaki pants and shirts he wore constantly, was elected to the House of Representatives and served Suwannee County and surrounding areas, including parts of Alachua, from 1974-76. He then ran for the Florida Senate seat, winning that election and serving from 1976-83.

Skinner ran for congress but narrowly lost the election, ending his official political career. It was then that Skinner tapped Branford native Randy Hatch of Branford to go with him to the Dominican Republic for the State Department and work with residents there to help them learn farming American style. Hatch said Skinner became like the older brother he never had and the two remained good friends until the day Skinner died.

Hatch, now a county commissioner, said Skinner, who had become one of the most powerful politicians in Florida while he served in the Senate, was a brilliant man whose ideas were always worthy of trial. The two worked together with Hatch working out detailed plans and Skinner coming up with unique ideas, Hatch said. They explored together ways to teach Haitians how to profit from commercial fishing and privately went into the international fishing business themselves, Hatch said. During this same time, Hatch said Skinner ran a 30,000-acre sugar plantation in the Dominican Republic. Through it all, Hatch said, Skinner was always thinking of other people and ways he could help others.

"Pete was quite a character," Hatch remembered Monday just prior to attending Skinner's funeral. "You could go to Tallahassee today and just about everybody you would meet would either have a Pete Skinner story or have heard one," Hatch remembered. "He was just larger than life. If you had a problem, (and you knew Skinner) you had a friend." Hatch said up until a few days before he died, Skinner continued to help others, including helping to get a family out of a third world country and returning them to America.

Hatch said once the two friends were sent by the US government to Haiti on a mission to gather soil samples and that trip turned into a calamity that today makes a hilarious memory, although it wasn't funny at all at the time. They rode inland to a desert area on a rickety helicopter, were dropped off and ended up staying in a tiny home overnight as the guests of about a dozen people who lived in the tiny house. The next day they started out and Hatch said he hitched up his compass, bottled water and a machete. "Pete asked me what did I think I was doing! He told me we didn't have to worry about getting lost because the people there would look after us because he was a senator." Forty-five minutes later, hopelessly lost, both men wondered why they had made the decision to leave those typical Boy Scout survival articles back at the beginning point. It was nearly 3 a.m. the next morning when a single member of a search party finally found them and drove them through the wilderness 40 miles to civilization.

"He was dedicated to the people, it did not matter to him that the voters rejected him because so many people depended on him to help them," Hatch said. "He was the only guy I knew who could eat at the White House today and sit on the back of a pickup truck the next day eating sardines and be comfortable with it. Pete Skinner was unique, and he and I were brothers in arms," Hatch said of his friend. "He was all these things to people." Hatch said although Skinner had been out of official political office for years, he was always anxious to help others.

In recent years Skinner had taught at Lake City Community College, Santa Fe Community College and had developed and taught a model course for helping prison inmates be prepared for release.

Funeral services were conducted at 4 p.m., Monday, Nov. 7, in St. James Episcopal Church with the Rev. Jeff Robinson officiating. Memorials may be made to St. James Episcopal Church Building Fund, 581 SW Malone St., Lake City, FL 32025 or to the charity of your choice.

Interment was at Memorial Cemetery.

Susan K. Lamb may be reached by calling 1-386-362-1734 ext. 131 or by emailing susan.lamb@gaflnews.com.

When this story was posted in November 2005, this was on the front page of PCOL:

Peace Corps at highest Census in 30 yearsCongratulations to the Peace Corps for the highest number of volunteers in 30 years with 7,810 volunteers serving in 71 posts across the globe. Of course, the President's proposal to double the Peace Corps to 15,000 volunteers made in his State of the Union Address in 2002 is now a long forgotten dream. With deficits in federal spending stretching far off into the future, any substantive increase in the number of volunteers will have to wait for new approaches to funding and for a new administration. Choose your candidate and start working for him or her now.

Why blurring the lines puts PCVs in dangerWhen the National Call to Service legislation was amended to include Peace Corps in December of 2002, this country had not yet invaded Iraq and was not in prolonged military engagement in the Middle East, as it is now. Read the story of how one volunteer spent three years in captivity from 1976 to 1980 as the hostage of a insurrection group in Colombia in Joanne Marie Roll's op-ed on why this legislation may put soldier/PCVs in the same kind of danger. Latest: Read the ongoing dialog on the subject.

'Celebration of Service' a major successThe Peace Corps Fund's 'Celebration of Service' on September 29 in New York City was a major success raising approximately $100,000 for third goal activities. In the photo are Maureen Orth (Colombia); John Coyne (Ethiopia) Co-founder of the Peace Corps Fund; Caroline Kennedy; Barbara Anne Ferris (Morocco) Co-founder; Former Senator Harris Wofford, member of the Advisory Board. Read the story here.

PC apologizes for the "Kasama incident"The District Commissioner for the Kasama District in Zambia issued a statement banning Peace Corps activities for ‘grave’ social misconduct and unruly behavior for an incident that occurred on September 24 involving 13 PCVs. Peace Corps said that some of the information put out about the incident was "inflammatory and false." On October 12, Country Director Davy Morris met with community leaders and apologized for the incident. All PCVs involved have been reprimanded, three are returning home, and a ban in the district has since been lifted.

The Peace Corps LibraryPeace Corps Online is proud to announce that the Peace Corps Library is now available online. With over 30,000 index entries in 500 categories, this is the largest collection of Peace Corps related stories in the world. From Acting to Zucchini, you can find hundreds of stories about what RPCVs with your same interests or from your Country of Service are doing today. If you have a web site, support the "Peace Corps Library" and link to it today.

Friends of the Peace Corps 170,000 strong170,000 is a very special number for the RPCV community - it's the number of Volunteers who have served in the Peace Corps since 1961. It's also a number that is very special to us because March is the first month since our founding in January, 2001 that our readership has exceeded 170,000. And while we know that not everyone who comes to this site is an RPCV, they are all "Friends of the Peace Corps." Thanks everybody for making PCOL your source of news for the Returned Volunteer community.

Read the stories and leave your comments.

Some postings on Peace Corps Online are provided to the individual members of this group without permission of the copyright owner for the non-profit purposes of criticism, comment, education, scholarship, and research under the "Fair Use" provisions of U.S. Government copyright laws and they may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner. Peace Corps Online does not vouch for the accuracy of the content of the postings, which is the sole responsibility of the copyright holder.

Story Source: Branford News

This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - India; Obituaries

PCOL2271471

Add a Message

This is a public posting area. Enter your username and password if you have an account. Otherwise, enter your full name as your username and leave the password blank. Your e-mail address is optional.